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This designer has two potential customers who have expressed an interest in search engine listings.
I have analyzed both websites and done keyword research to determine how people would find them in the search engines. The first client is a law firm. What I came up with is that when people look for lawyers, they are not looking by location as much as by area of practice. This law firm only has one page of content that includes all of their areas of practice.
My suggestion would be, at a minimum, rework the text on the first page of the site to include major keyword phrases, and to build separate content pages for each area of practice and have links to those pages from the first page of the site.
I also did a sample search engine listing report to show what I would provide to them on a monthly basis, and to show that they have a ranking of .... zero currently ;-)
I did my report in access and then tweaked it in Word. This was a bit time consuming to do all of this and in the future when I have a portfolio, I feel that I won't have to prove my knowledge.
I also created a one page "Benefits of SEO" document. So the potential client received 3 pages - a "brochure" or one page description of SEO and the benefits (I can now use this page for other clients), a report on their rankings (I only used their current keywords (which are all wrong) and a few search engines) and short and long term goals for their website.
All in all, this was alot of work with no guarantee of money attached to it. I was trying a free version of WebPosition but did not really enjoy it - I found it very time consuming to set up (but perhaps this is a one time thing) and I could not just print off the reports and go, therefore the only thing it really did for me was point out problems with the site...which I can do on my own.
I did realize that it is just as fast for me to make the changes to a site as it is to document them for someone else who may never make the changes... ie changing meta tags to reflect actual page content.
This is long and convoluted (sp?) but... I'm needing assistance on optimizing my time *grin*
I think that I will focus on monthly fees to encourage firms to try my services...
Any suggestions? I am thinking of getting someone to create some scripts/macros which will query particular websites with my keywords from my database and somehow generate reports from there...
itrainu
Firstly, as I intend the first 3 clients to be the first of many, I am drawing up a few documents
1. Firstly - advantages of being online. Its sometimes easy to forget that a majority of people on this planet do not know as much as you when it comes to the web
2. The services you provide. Break down the things that you are going to do (and the cost involved) so that they can feel more confident about parting with their money - i.e. better design, make it 'spider food' and rank prominently in the relevant SERP's
3. What you are actually going to do with their site to improve it, like changing the design so major keywords appear on all pages and less important keywords designated to relevant pages
All in all, I hear where your coming from. Providing a system for you to work through when attracting and providing for clients not only allows you to clearly explain what youre going to do for them, but it also gets you in a less of a muddle as you systematically work to complete the site. Im not the experts of experts but here is how I made my last site, with future sites having a similar approach.
1. The garage owner (of the site) has an older site designed by someone else > i pointed out what I believed to be the flaws, and what potential improvements I could make
2. Ask open questions about what they expect from their web site and things they wish to include
3. Check out the local competition for similar sites
4. Check out how they receive their #1 positions, the keywords they use, and other possible keywords they have left out. Then *try* to determine the value of each keyword
4. Create a basic template for the whole site, which can be included as an SSI for all pages, remembering to include some major keywords as part of the template (like address of the biz)
5. Get the content filled into the pages, relevantly divided into suitable pages within the SSI template
6. Re-arrange wording of document for optimisation with the SE's
Well, thats how I done it, and I provide them the host and the design.
Just working through it like that (particularly the template) saved me alot of time, and all in all, I completed the 8 page site in 5 days. One of these pages is dynamically generated, with hyperlinks into the database used on this page, so hopefully this will increase the amount of pages available to be found for the site on the SERP's
All in all, figure out what things you are repetitively doing and figure a way to make it faster :) Hope this helps in some way
Richard
When you quote fees for "optimizing" the site, do most of you do the work yourself or are you guiding the client or the client's webmaster on what needs to be done? By basic fee would include doing reworking myself - ie. changing titles and meta tags and basic editing of existing content to incorporate keywords.
But when it comes to creating new pages, which means changing navigation bars, etc. the price will have to go up significantly. Do you usually write this content or ask the client to write the content?
Thanks ;-) There are so many informed individuals around here *grin*
itrainu
1. I told him I'll keep checking out local competitor sites, their keywords etc and cross examine them with other keywords and new chosen keywords.
2. I'll check the popularity of keywords used and send him stats about them
I charge on what I estimate the time it will take to actually do this. I dont have to provide anything physical to him, so I just charge for the time taken. On topic, this cost is included with the server I asked him to run with :o)
When it comes to small changes, I said that can be done free of charge. If a large section of a page or a new page is required, the initial site template is there, so its only a matter of adding links and text
I've empowered my client to update his database of cars as and when required, and he can take advantage of his digital camera and provide photo's with his database results.
Its their site so I sorta want them to encourage getting value for money :o)
Im thinking about changing the site to be database driven, where they can change the site simply by changing a field in a database, but then I realised they would more than likely spoil the SEO work I would put in :o)
Tell me what ya think
I don't like giving away my knowledge - it cost me a lot to acquire. It's a new direction for us, but so far we're finding that it actually converts more prospects into clients for us. It also puts us firmly in the driver seat and our word is valued more highly.
There are several sites on the net that offer a "free" web site evaluation. I figure that they are wanting to add you to their mailing list since they make it mandatory for you to fill out all fields...and if you want the eval I guess you have to give them a real email address ;-) These sites are much bigger than I plan to be, offering quite a bit of useful information, newsletters, etc. Is this the difference do you think? The bigger the co. the bigger the bite they can afford to give away?
itrainu
One of the packages I will offer will be for do it yourselfers. As an add on, you can opt in for monthly reports...so you can do the work yourself and have someone else report back to you on your standings. When they see their standings not changing in the first month or two after all the hardwork they did.... they'll come to me ;-)
I'm also going to offer Keyword Research as a separate package. The full package will be Keyword Research, site optimization and submitting, and a couple of monthly reports. Add on package of monthly reports and minor changes (I will have to quantify this...likely will do so in hours).
Any thoughts here? Too many options to choose from? I really want to have something at the low end for those who are afraid to put their money out there (like Wordtracker has daily, weekly, monthly, etc subscription options).
itrainu
Although this statement was qualified with a smiley, I don't think it is a fair statement. We offer a free evaluation, and it's not just a search engine standings report. Depending on the size of the potential client, we may go as far as full keyword research. We are not simply gathering email addresses, and I doubt the other companies are doing this either.
Granted, these evaluations eat up quite a bit of time, especially when you get quite a few in at once. However, we have streamlined our process over the last year or two, and we can pump the easiest ones out in a matter of 15-30 minutes. That's a small price to pay for an excellent inroad to a new customer.
Absolutely, there are always leaches out there who will try to take your work and do it themselves or pass it to someone else they think can do it. The reality is, you will never want to do business with that kind of person anyways. You cannot stop a percentage of people from trying to steal your work. We discount that, and move on. The benefits outweigh the losses.
When our audit hits the hands of the huge majority of people who legitimately want the information and legitimately want to find someone to perform these services, we have a huge advantage. We are constantly complemented and thanked for the "valuable information". Not only that, but it proves we know our business. Our audit tells them what they are lacking, and why it needs to be done. Instant credibility in their eyes.
It's clearly possible to provide this information without giving away the house too. For instance, we explain why a LookSmart listing is important to achieving a top ranking on MSN (in some instances). We explain how Yahoo and LookSmart submissions are non-refundable. We explain why their listing needs to be crafted by professionals. But we do NOT give away the details of exactly how to implement the services. In essence, we have proved to them that there is a need for the services, we can provide them, but all they have is a vague idea of what exactly needs to be done.
If they want to try it themselves, good luck. Come back in 6 months and our rates will probably be higher, along with added expenses of cleaning up the mess that was made.
You are not going to win every deal. But by having a "Free analysis", you certainly put yourself in front of many more potential customers, guaranteeing your business to grow.
caveat: the early stages of offering "free audits" will certainly seem cumbersome and not financially worth it. However, as the process gets streamlined, it becomes a profit-center. This is standard in any form of advertising or marketing though.
One selling point we use is seperating out all PPC, PFI, PFR costs from our fees. Once they know what they are going to have to spend x number of dollars even without us, they realize the value of having professionals do the work, rather than taking chances.
When it comes to spending a fair amount of money in a strange area with no guaranteed results, handholding is not an unnatural request. And lot of executives routinely want proposals... that's the way they work. Some personality types like to meet you and schmooze so they're comfortable doing business with you.
I've developed kind of a step outline of what I do (why SEO? - set goals and priorities - analyze current site - analyze web positioning... etc etc), and I've tried to break out the initial steps into what I call a "discovery phase," but this still takes a day or two or more, depending on the size and complexity of the site and the company.
I'm finding that for some this discovery phase is a big hurdle... In itself it's not cheap, and since part of the discovery is scoping out the size of the job, I'm putting potential clients in the position of paying to start down a road they may not want to follow.
And when I tell people I will eventually need to make changes to their site, they naturally enough want to know what kind of changes... and that's often hard to distinguish from somebody picking my mind.
As to starting with something small, like a page or two, that approach doesn't make sense to me. I've been taking a whole site approach, with special attention to specifically targeted pages, and that usually takes a week or so. Also, I usually co-write optimized copy with client marketing people, and that requires laying out a lot of guidelines up front... not enough, in reality, for a client to do what I do, but often enough so they think they can. And for really non-competitive stuff, these guidelines can be sufficient, particularly if I've also built a page or two for them.
I never would have dreamed of offering proposals for free...so along those lines I realize that until I have a portfolio proving my skills, I will have to work harder to get clients. I am hoping to charge a small fee for proposals - just to hopefully weed out some of the non biters.
WordTracker has a very interesting ecommerce model - daily, weekly, monthly, etc. pricing options.
I would like to have pricing options for those who want to do it themselves and those who want it done for them. I am a typical person to purchase the bronze, then realize later that I need to upgrade to the gold to get anywhere ;-)
Thanks for all the helpful information! I will keep in mind not to give away the house when I write proposals ;-)
itrainu
Then take a look over the site, pick out the 5 worst mistakes (keyword stuffing, multiple k/words tags, JS-only nav etc) point out the problems, offer some very non-specific fix ideas ("Rewrite title and keywords tags; optomise content of home page; improve site navigaton), and at the end, make your pitch
We offer this a free service, I have our p/t admin guy run them off, takes him about 10 - 15 minutes/report. Follow up in a few days, and go for the meeting, and get the contract.
Its worked well for me so far
TT - Great post, but it still gets me to the place where I run into that next problem... At that meeting, they're going to ask for a proposal... and the research and discussion to create that proposal and to scope out what needs to be done is anywhere from a half-day to about three days, depending on lots of factors. I don't really know until I've looked and start talking.
Even if the client is willing to pay for this phase hourly, which I've found is rare without some kind of a cap, they also want... before they go into it... an idea what the whole job will cost. How to you manage this part of it? It's chicken and egg all over the place.
To distinguish what I do from the many other possible SEO models (like offering cloaked doorways)... I do a lot of search target research up front, and then a combination onsite optimization and link building.
When they say to you "I want a proposal", what they really mean is, "listen fella if I screw up here my neck's on the block, help me out here and convince me that I should give you the money"
Without giving them anything specific to their scenario show them examples (doesn't even have to be one of your own cutomers) of ways in which SEO works. I've built up a fantastic catalogue of "case studies", often I've given someone a discount (I've even done work for free) when their scenario is a new one, you can then cite it as an example.
Before you can diagnose, or propose you need to flush out the tyre kickers from the genuine prospects. Rather than them asking me a whole bunch of questions, I ask them a whole bunch.
Questions like :
What's your budget ?
I try to ask that first. If they haven't got one say something like "Excluding my fees this is going to run to several thousand £/$, is that going to cause you a problem?" It's a champagne lifestyle/beer budget question.
What percentage of your overall company marketing budget have you set aside for this ?
Who else needs to be consulted for the decision to be made ? (Killer one that, if the person you are dealing with can't decide, then kill it at that point, and get in front of the one that can sign on the line)
Who else will you be speaking to ?
It's a tough call. I actually offer a no-brainer free report to a small select community. It results in about 60-70% of the recipients being concerned enough to ask me "What can I do to make things better?" and then you have a very good chance of securing a win-win scenario.
My first rule is "do not prostitute yourself", if someone is so adamant that you have to jump through hoops before they will consider doing business with you then walk away and move on to the next prospect. Hold your head high, it's an honourable profession, we all know it works and in time so will they.
